City of God
Augustine of Hippo (354–430)
First published 426
Augustine's De civitate Dei, staged here in the public-domain NPNF English translation by Marcus Dods.
Book 1
Caput I: Preface, Explaining His Design in Undertaking This Work.
Caput I: Of the Adversaries of the Name of Christ, Whom the Barbarians for Christ’s Sake Spared When They Stormed the City.
Caput II: That It is Quite Contrary to the Usage of War, that the Victors Should Spare the Vanquished for the Sake of Their Gods.
Caput III: That the Romans Did Not Show Their Usual Sagacity When They Trusted that They Would Be Benefited by the Gods Who Had Been Unable to Defend Troy.
Caput IV: Of the Asylum of Juno in Troy, Which Saved No One from the Greeks; And of the Churches of the Apostles, Which Protected from the Barbarians All Who Fled to Them.
Caput V: Cæsar’s Statement Regarding the Universal Custom of an Enemy When Sacking a City.
Caput VI: That Not Even the Romans, When They Took Cities, Spared the Conquered in Their Temples.
Caput VII: That the Cruelties Which Occurred in the Sack of Rome Were in Accordance with the Custom of War, Whereas the Acts of Clemency Resulted from the Influence of Christ’s Name.
Caput VIII: Of the Advantages and Disadvantages Which Often Indiscriminately Accrue to Good and Wicked Men.
Caput IX: Of the Reasons for Administering Correction to Bad and Good Together.
Caput X: That the Saints Lose Nothing in Losing Temporal Goods.
Caput XI: Of the End of This Life, Whether It is Material that It Be Long Delayed.
Caput XII: Of the Burial of the Dead: that the Denial of It to Christians Does Them No Injury.
Caput XIII: Reasons for Burying the Bodies of the Saints.
Caput XIV: Of the Captivity of the Saints, and that Divine Consolation Never Failed Them Therein.
Caput XV: Of Regulus, in Whom We Have an Example of the Voluntary Endurance of Captivity for the Sake of Religion; Which Yet Did Not Profit Him, Though He Was a Worshipper of the Gods.
Caput XVI: Of the Violation of the Consecrated and Other Christian Virgins, to Which They Were Subjected in Captivity and to Which Their Own Will Gave No Consent; And Whether This Contaminated Their Souls.
Caput XVII: Of Suicide Committed Through Fear of Punishment or Dishonor.
Caput XVIII: Of the Violence Which May Be Done to the Body by Another’s Lust, While the Mind Remains Inviolate.
Caput XIX: Of Lucretia, Who Put an End to Her Life Because of the Outrage Done Her.
Caput XX: That Christians Have No Authority for Committing Suicide in Any Circumstances Whatever.
Caput XXI: Of the Cases in Which We May Put Men to Death Without Incurring the Guilt of Murder.
Caput XXII: That Suicide Can Never Be Prompted by Magnanimity.
Caput XXIII: What We are to Think of the Example of Cato, Who Slew Himself Because Unable to Endure Cæsar’s Victory.
Caput XXIV: That in that Virtue in Which Regulus Excels Cato, Christians are Pre-Eminently Distinguished.
Caput XXV: That We Should Not Endeavor By Sin to Obviate Sin.
Caput XXVI: That in Certain Peculiar Cases the Examples of the Saints are Not to Be Followed.
Caput XXVII: Whether Voluntary Death Should Be Sought in Order to Avoid Sin.
Caput XXVIII: By What Judgment of God the Enemy Was Permitted to Indulge His Lust on the Bodies of Continent Christians.
Caput XXIX: What the Servants of Christ Should Say in Reply to the Unbelievers Who Cast in Their Teeth that Christ Did Not Rescue Them from the Fury of Their Enemies.
Caput XXX: That Those Who Complain of Christianity Really Desire to Live Without Restraint in Shameful Luxury.
Caput XXXI: By What Steps the Passion for Governing Increased Among the Romans.
Caput XXXII: Of the Establishment of Scenic Entertainments.
Caput XXXIII: That the Overthrow of Rome Has Not Corrected the Vices of the Romans.
Caput XXXIV: Of God’s Clemency in Moderating the Ruin of the City.
Caput XXXV: Of the Sons of the Church Who are Hidden Among the Wicked, and of False Christians Within the Church.
Caput XXXVI: What Subjects are to Be Handled in the Following Discourse.
Book 2
Caput I: Of the Limits Which Must Be Put to the Necessity of Replying to an Adversary.
Caput II: Recapitulation of the Contents of the First Book.
Caput III: That We Need Only to Read History in Order to See What Calamities the Romans Suffered Before the Religion of Christ Began to Compete with the Worship of the Gods.
Caput IV: That the Worshippers of the Gods Never Received from Them Any Healthy Moral Precepts, and that in Celebrating Their Worship All Sorts of Impurities Were Practiced.
Caput V: Of the Obscenities Practiced in Honor of the Mother of the Gods.
Caput VI: That the Gods of the Pagans Never Inculcated Holiness of Life.
Caput VII: That the Suggestions of Philosophers are Precluded from Having Any Moral Effect, Because They Have Not the Authority Which Belongs to Divine Instruction, and Because Man’s Natural Bias to Evil Induces Him Rather to Follow the Examples of the Gods Than to Obey the Precepts of Men.
Caput VIII: That the Theatrical Exhibitions Publishing the Shameful Actions of the Gods, Propitiated Rather Than Offended Them.
Caput IX: That the Poetical License Which the Greeks, in Obedience to Their Gods, Allowed, Was Restrained by the Ancient Romans.
Caput X: That the Devils, in Suffering Either False or True Crimes to Be Laid to Their Charge, Meant to Do Men a Mischief.
Caput XI: That the Greeks Admitted Players to Offices of State, on the Ground that Men Who Pleased the Gods Should Not Be Contemptuously Treated by Their Fellows.
Caput XII: That the Romans, by Refusing to the Poets the Same License in Respect of Men Which They Allowed Them in the Case of the Gods, Showed a More Delicate Sensitiveness Regarding Themselves than Regarding the Gods.
Caput XIII: That the Romans Should Have Understood that Gods Who Desired to Be Worshipped in Licentious Entertainments Were Unworthy of Divine Honor.
Caput XIV: That Plato, Who Excluded Poets from a Well-Ordered City, Was Better Than These Gods Who Desire to Be Honoured by Theatrical Plays.
Caput XV: That It Was Vanity, Not Reason, Which Created Some of the Roman Gods.
Caput XVI: That If the Gods Had Really Possessed Any Regard for Righteousness, the Romans Should Have Received Good Laws from Them, Instead of Having to Borrow Them from Other Nations.
Caput XVII: Of the Rape of the Sabine Women, and Other Iniquities Perpetrated in Rome’s Palmiest Days.
Caput XVIII: What the History of Sallust Reveals Regarding the Life of the Romans, Either When Straitened by Anxiety or Relaxed in Security.
Caput XIX: Of the Corruption Which Had Grown Upon the Roman Republic Before Christ Abolished the Worship of the Gods.
Caput XX: Of the Kind of Happiness and Life Truly Delighted in by Those Who Inveigh Against the Christian Religion.
Caput XXI: Cicero’s Opinion of the Roman Republic.
Caput XXII: That the Roman Gods Never Took Any Steps to Prevent the Republic from Being Ruined by Immorality.
Caput XXIII: That the Vicissitudes of This Life are Dependent Not on the Favor or Hostility of Demons, But on the Will of the True God.
Caput XXIV: Of the Deeds of Sylla, in Which the Demons Boasted that He Had Their Help.
Caput XXV: How Powerfully the Evil Spirits Incite Men to Wicked Actions, by Giving Them the Quasi-Divine Authority of Their Example.
Caput XXVI: That the Demons Gave in Secret Certain Obscure Instructions in Morals, While in Public Their Own Solemnities Inculcated All Wickedness.
Caput XXVII: That the Obscenities of Those Plays Which the Romans Consecrated in Order to Propitiate Their Gods, Contributed Largely to the Overthrow of Public Order.
Caput XXVIII: That the Christian Religion is Health-Giving.
Caput XXIX: An Exhortation to the Romans to Renounce Paganism.
Book 3
Caput I: Of the Ills Which Alone the Wicked Fear, and Which the World Continually Suffered, Even When the Gods Were Worshipped.
Caput II: Whether the Gods, Whom the Greeks and Romans Worshipped in Common, Were Justified in Permitting the Destruction of Ilium.
Caput III: That the Gods Could Not Be Offended by the Adultery of Paris, This Crime Being So Common Among Themselves.
Caput IV: Of Varro’s Opinion, that It is Useful for Men to Feign Themselves the Offspring of the Gods.
Caput V: That It is Not Credible that the Gods Should Have Punished the Adultery of Paris, Seeing They Showed No Indignation at the Adultery of the Mother of Romulus.
Caput VI: That the Gods Exacted No Penalty for the Fratricidal Act of Romulus.
Caput VII: Of the Destruction of Ilium by Fimbria, a Lieutenant of Marius.
Caput VIII: Whether Rome Ought to Have Been Entrusted to the Trojan Gods.
Caput IX: Whether It is Credible that the Peace During the Reign of Numa Was Brought About by the Gods.
Caput X: Whether It Was Desirable that The Roman Empire Should Be Increased by Such a Furious Succession of Wars, When It Might Have Been Quiet and Safe by Following in the Peaceful Ways of Numa.
Caput XI: Of the Statue of Apollo at Cumæ, Whose Tears are Supposed to Have Portended Disaster to the Greeks, Whom the God Was Unable to Succor.
Caput XII: That the Romans Added a Vast Number of Gods to Those Introduced by Numa, and that Their Numbers Helped Them Not at All.
Caput XIII: By What Right or Agreement The Romans Obtained Their First Wives.
Caput XIV: Of the Wickedness of the War Waged by the Romans Against the Albans, and of the Victories Won by the Lust of Power.
Caput XV: What Manner of Life and Death the Roman Kings Had.
Caput XVI: Of the First Roman Consuls, the One of Whom Drove the Other from the Country, and Shortly After Perished at Rome by the Hand of a Wounded Enemy, and So Ended a Career of Unnatural Murders.
Caput XVII: Of the Disasters Which Vexed the Roman Republic After the Inauguration of the Consulship, and of the Non-Intervention of the Gods of Rome.
Caput XVIII: The Disasters Suffered by the Romans in the Punic Wars, Which Were Not Mitigated by the Protection of the Gods.
Caput XIX: Of the Calamity of the Second Punic War, Which Consumed the Strength of Both Parties.
Caput XX: Of the Destruction of the Saguntines, Who Received No Help from the Roman Gods, Though Perishing on Account of Their Fidelity to Rome.
Caput XXI: Of the Ingratitude of Rome to Scipio, Its Deliverer, and of Its Manners During the Period Which Sallust Describes as the Best.
Caput XXII: Of the Edict of Mithridates, Commanding that All Roman Citizens Found in Asia Should Be Slain.
Caput XXIII: Of the Internal Disasters Which Vexed the Roman Republic, and Followed a Portentous Madness Which Seized All the Domestic Animals.
Caput XXIV: Of the Civil Dissension Occasioned by the Sedition of the Gracchi.
Caput XXV: Of the Temple of Concord, Which Was Erected by a Decree of the Senate on the Scene of These Seditions and Massacres.
Caput XXVI: Of the Various Kinds of Wars Which Followed the Building of the Temple of Concord.
Caput XXVII: Of the Civil War Between Marius and Sylla.
Caput XXVIII: Of the Victory of Sylla, the Avenger of the Cruelties of Marius.
Caput XXIX: A Comparison of the Disasters Which Rome Experienced During the Gothic and Gallic Invasions, with Those Occasioned by the Authors of the Civil Wars.
Caput XXX: Of the Connection of the Wars Which with Great Severity and Frequency Followed One Another Before the Advent of Christ.
Caput XXXI: That It is Effrontery to Impute the Present Troubles to Christ and the Prohibition of Polytheistic Worship Since Even When the Gods Were Worshipped Such Calamities Befell the People.
Book 4
Caput I: Of the Things Which Have Been Discussed in the First Book.
Caput II: Of Those Things Which are Contained in Books Second and Third.
Caput III: Whether the Great Extent of the Empire, Which Has Been Acquired Only by Wars, is to Be Reckoned Among the Good Things Either of the Wise or the Happy.
Caput IV: How Like Kingdoms Without Justice are to Robberies.
Caput V: Of the Runaway Gladiators Whose Power Became Like that of Royal Dignity.
Caput VI: Concerning the Covetousness of Ninus, Who Was the First Who Made War on His Neighbors, that He Might Rule More Widely.
Caput VII: Whether Earthly Kingdoms in Their Rise and Fall Have Been Either Aided or Deserted by the Help of the Gods.
Caput VIII: Which of the Gods Can the Romans Suppose Presided Over the Increase and Preservation of Their Empire, When They Have Believed that Even the Care of Single Things Could Scarcely Be Committed to Single Gods.
Caput IX: Whether the Great Extent and Long Duration of the Roman Empire Should Be Ascribed to Jove, Whom His Worshippers Believe to Be the Chief God.
Caput X: What Opinions Those Have Followed Who Have Set Divers Gods Over Divers Parts of the World.
Caput XI: Concerning the Many Gods Whom the Pagan Doctors Defend as Being One and the Same Jove.
Caput XII: Concerning the Opinion of Those Who Have Thought that God is the Soul of the World, and the World is the Body of God.
Caput XIII: Concerning Those Who Assert that Only Rational Animals are Parts of the One God.
Caput XIV: The Enlargement of Kingdoms is Unsuitably Ascribed to Jove; For If, as They Will Have It, Victoria is a Goddess, She Alone Would Suffice for This Business.
Caput XV: Whether It is Suitable for Good Men to Wish to Rule More Widely.
Caput XVI: What Was the Reason Why the Romans, in Detailing Separate Gods for All Things and All Movements of the Mind, Chose to Have the Temple of Quiet Outside the Gates.
Caput XVII: Whether, If the Highest Power Belongs to Jove, Victoria Also Ought to Be Worshipped.
Caput XVIII: With What Reason They Who Think Felicity and Fortune Goddesses Have Distinguished Them.
Caput XIX: Concerning Fortuna Muliebris.
Caput XX: Concerning Virtue and Faith, Which the Pagans Have Honored with Temples and Sacred Rites, Passing by Other Good Qualities, Which Ought Likewise to Have Been Worshipped, If Deity Was Rightly Attributed to These.
Caput XXI: That Although Not Understanding Them to Be the Gifts of God, They Ought at Least to Have Been Content with Virtue and Felicity.
Caput XXII: Concerning the Knowledge of the Worship Due to the Gods, Which Varro Glories in Having Himself Conferred on the Romans.
Caput XXIII: Concerning Felicity, Whom the Romans, Who Venerate Many Gods, for a Long Time Did Not Worship with Divine Honor, Though She Alone Would Have Sufficed Instead of All.
Caput XXIV: The Reasons by Which the Pagans Attempt to Defend Their Worshipping Among the Gods the Divine Gifts Themselves.
Caput XXV: Concerning the One God Only to Be Worshipped, Who, Although His Name is Unknown, is Yet Deemed to Be the Giver of Felicity.
Caput XXVI: Of the Scenic Plays, the Celebration of Which the Gods Have Exacted from Their Worshippers.
Caput XXVII: Concerning the Three Kinds of Gods About Which the Pontiff Scævola Has Discoursed.
Caput XXVIII: Whether the Worship of the Gods Has Been of Service to the Romans in Obtaining and Extending the Empire.
Caput XXIX: Of the Falsity of the Augury by Which the Strength and Stability of the Roman Empire Was Considered to Be Indicated.
Caput XXX: What Kind of Things Even Their Worshippers Have Owned They Have Thought About the Gods of the Nations.
Caput XXXI: Concerning the Opinions of Varro, Who, While Reprobating the Popular Belief, Thought that Their Worship Should Be Confined to One God, Though He Was Unable to Discover the True God.
Caput XXXII: In What Interest the Princes of the Nations Wished False Religions to Continue Among the People Subject to Them.
Caput XXXIII: That the Times of All Kings and Kingdoms are Ordained by the Judgment and Power of the True God.
Caput XXXIV: Concerning the Kingdom of the Jews, Which Was Founded by the One and True God, and Preserved by Him as Long as They Remained in the True Religion.
Book 5
Caput I: Preface
Caput I: That the Cause of the Roman Empire, and of All Kingdoms, is Neither Fortuitous Nor Consists in the Position of the Stars.
Caput II: On the Difference in the Health of Twins.
Caput III: Concerning the Arguments Which Nigidius the Mathematician Drew from the Potter’s Wheel, in the Question About the Birth of Twins.
Caput IV: Concerning the Twins Esau and Jacob, Who Were Very Unlike Each Other Both in Their Character and Actions.
Caput V: In What Manner the Mathematicians are Convicted of Professing a Vain Science.
Caput VI: Concerning Twins of Different Sexes.
Caput VII: Concerning the Choosing of a Day for Marriage, or for Planting, or Sowing.
Caput VIII: Concerning Those Who Call by the Name of Fate, Not the Position of the Stars, But the Connection of Causes Which Depends on the Will of God.
Caput IX: Concerning the Foreknowledge of God and the Free Will of Man, in Opposition to the Definition of Cicero.
Caput X: Whether Our Wills are Ruled by Necessity.
Caput XI: Concerning the Universal Providence of God in the Laws of Which All Things are Comprehended.
Caput XII: By What Virtues the Ancient Romans Merited that the True God, Although They Did Not Worship Him, Should Enlarge Their Empire.
Caput XIII: Concerning the Love of Praise, Which, Though It is a Vice, is Reckoned a Virtue, Because by It Greater Vice is Restrained.
Caput XIV: Concerning the Eradication of the Love of Human Praise, Because All the Glory of the Righteous is in God.
Caput XV: Concerning the Temporal Reward Which God Granted to the Virtues of the Romans.
Caput XVI: Concerning the Reward of the Holy Citizens of the Celestial City, to Whom the Example of the Virtues of the Romans are Useful.
Caput XVII: To What Profit the Romans Carried on Wars, and How Much They Contributed to the Well-Being of Those Whom They Conquered.
Caput XVIII: How Far Christians Ought to Be from Boasting, If They Have Done Anything for the Love of the Eternal Country, When the Romans Did Such Great Things for Human Glory and a Terrestrial City.
Caput XIX: Concerning the Difference Between True Glory and the Desire of Domination.
Caput XX: That It is as Shameful for the Virtues to Serve Human Glory as Bodily Pleasure.
Caput XXI: That the Roman Dominion Was Granted by Him from Whom is All Power, and by Whose Providence All Things are Ruled.
Caput XXII: The Durations and Issues of War Depend on the Will of God.
Caput XXIII: Concerning the War in Which Radagaisus, King of the Goths, a Worshipper of Demons, Was Conquered in One Day, with All His Mighty Forces.
Caput XXIV: What Was the Happiness of the Christian Emperors, and How Far It Was True Happiness.
Caput XXV: Concerning the Prosperity Which God Granted to the Christian Emperor Constantine.
Caput XXVI: On the Faith and Piety of Theodosius Augustus.
Book 6
Caput I: Preface
Caput I: Of Those Who Maintain that They Worship the Gods Not for the Sake of Temporal But Eternal Advantages.
Caput II: What We are to Believe that Varro Thought Concerning the Gods of the Nations, Whose Various Kinds and Sacred Rites He Has Shown to Be Such that He Would Have Acted More Reverently Towards Them Had He Been Altogether Silent Concerning Them.
Caput III: Varro’s Distribution of His Book Which He Composed Concerning the Antiquities of Human and Divine Things.
Caput IV: That from the Disputation of Varro, It Follows that the Worshippers of the Gods Regard Human Things as More Ancient Than Divine Things.
Caput V: Concerning the Three Kinds of Theology According to Varro, Namely, One Fabulous, the Other Natural, the Third Civil.
Caput VI: Concerning the Mythic, that Is, the Fabulous, Theology, and the Civil, Against Varro.
Caput VII: Concerning the Likeness and Agreement of the Fabulous and Civil Theologies.
Caput VIII: Concerning the Interpretations, Consisting of Natural Explanations, Which the Pagan Teachers Attempt to Show for Their Gods.
Caput IX: Concerning the Special Offices of the Gods.
Caput X: Concerning the Liberty of Seneca, Who More Vehemently Censured the Civil Theology Than Varro Did the Fabulous.
Caput XI: What Seneca Thought Concerning the Jews.
Caput XII: That When Once the Vanity of the Gods of the Nations Has Been Exposed, It Cannot Be Doubted that They are Unable to Bestow Eternal Life on Any One, When They Cannot Afford Help Even with Respect to the Things Of this Temporal Life.
Book 7
Caput I: Preface
Caput I: Whether, Since It is Evident that Deity is Not to Be Found in the Civil Theology, We are to Believe that It is to Be Found in the Select Gods.
Caput II: Who are the Select Gods, and Whether They are Held to Be Exempt from the Offices of the Commoner Gods.
Caput III: How There is No Reason Which Can Be Shown for the Selection of Certain Gods, When the Administration of More Exalted Offices is Assigned to Many Inferior Gods.
Caput IV: The Inferior Gods, Whose Names are Not Associated with Infamy, Have Been Better Dealt with Than the Select Gods, Whose Infamies are Celebrated.
Caput V: Concerning the More Secret Doctrine of the Pagans, and Concerning the Physical Interpretations.
Caput VI: Concerning the Opinion of Varro, that God is the Soul of the World, Which Nevertheless, in Its Various Parts, Has Many Souls Whose Nature is Divine.
Caput VII: Whether It is Reasonable to Separate Janus and Terminus as Two Distinct Deities.
Caput VIII: For What Reason the Worshippers of Janus Have Made His Image with Two Faces, When They Would Sometimes Have It Be Seen with Four.
Caput IX: Concerning the Power of Jupiter, and a Comparison of Jupiter with Janus.
Caput X: Whether the Distinction Between Janus and Jupiter is a Proper One.
Caput XI: Concerning the Surnames of Jupiter, Which are Referred Not to Many Gods, But to One and the Same God.
Caput XII: That Jupiter is Also Called Pecunia.
Caput XIII: That When It is Expounded What Saturn Is, What Genius Is, It Comes to This, that Both of Them are Shown to Be Jupiter.
Caput XIV: Concerning the Offices of Mercury and Mars.
Caput XV: Concerning Certain Stars Which the Pagans Have Called by the Names of Their Gods.
Caput XVI: Concerning Apollo and Diana, and the Other Select Gods Whom They Would Have to Be Parts of the World.
Caput XVII: That Even Varro Himself Pronounced His Own Opinions Regarding the Gods Ambiguous.
Caput XVIII: A More Credible Cause of the Rise of Pagan Error.
Caput XIX: Concerning the Interpretations Which Compose the Reason of the Worship of Saturn.
Caput XX: Concerning the Rites of Eleusinian Ceres.
Caput XXI: Concerning the Shamefulness of the Rites Which are Celebrated in Honor of Liber.
Caput XXII: Concerning Neptune, and Salacia and Venilia.
Caput XXIII: Concerning the Earth, Which Varro Affirms to Be a Goddess, Because that Soul of the World Which He Thinks to Be God Pervades Also This Lowest Part of His Body, and Imparts to It a Divine Force.
Caput XXIV: Concerning the Surnames of Tellus and Their Significations, Which, Although They Indicate Many Properties, Ought Not to Have Established the Opinion that There is a Corresponding Number of Gods.
Caput XXV: The Interpretation of the Mutilation of Atys Which the Doctrine of the Greek Sages Set Forth.
Caput XXVI: Concerning the Abomination of the Sacred Rites of the Great Mother.
Caput XXVII: Concerning the Figments of the Physical Theologists, Who Neither Worship the True Divinity, Nor Perform the Worship Wherewith the True Divinity Should Be Served.
Caput XXVIII: That the Doctrine of Varro Concerning Theology is in No Part Consistent with Itself.
Caput XXIX: That All Things Which the Physical Theologists Have Referred to the World and Its Parts, They Ought to Have Referred to the One True God.
Caput XXX: How Piety Distinguishes the Creator from the Creatures, So That, Instead of One God, There are Not Worshipped as Many Gods as There are Works of the One Author.
Caput XXXI: What Benefits God Gives to the Followers of the Truth to Enjoy Over and Above His General Bounty.
Caput XXXII: That at No Time in the Past Was the Mystery of Christ’s Redemption Awanting, But Was at All Times Declared, Though in Various Forms.
Caput XXXIII: That Only Through the Christian Religion Could the Deceit of Malign Spirits, Who Rejoice in the Errors of Men, Have Been Manifested.
Caput XXXIV: Concerning the Books of Numa Pompilius, Which the Senate Ordered to Be Burned, in Order that the Causes of Sacred Rights Therein Assigned Should Not Become Known.
Caput XXXV: Concerning the Hydromancy Through Which Numa Was Befooled by Certain Images of Demons Seen in the Water.
Book 8
Caput I: That the Question of Natural Theology is to Be Discussed with Those Philosophers Who Sought a More Excellent Wisdom.
Caput II: Concerning the Two Schools of Philosophers, that Is, the Italic and Ionic, and Their Founders.
Caput III: Of the Socratic Philosophy.
Caput IV: Concerning Plato, the Chief Among the Disciples of Socrates, and His Threefold Division of Philosophy.
Caput V: That It is Especially with the Platonists that We Must Carry on Our Disputations on Matters of Theology, Their Opinions Being Preferable to Those of All Other Philosophers.
Caput VI: Concerning the Meaning of the Platonists in that Part of Philosophy Called Physical.
Caput VII: How Much the Platonists are to Be Held as Excelling Other Philosophers in Logic, i.e. Rational Philosophy.
Caput VIII: That the Platonists Hold the First Rank in Moral Philosophy Also.
Caput IX: Concerning that Philosophy Which Has Come Nearest to the Christian Faith.
Caput X: That the Excellency of the Christian Religion is Above All the Science of Philosophers.
Caput XI: How Plato Has Been Able to Approach So Nearly to Christian Knowledge.
Caput XII: That Even the Platonists, Though They Say These Things Concerning the One True God, Nevertheless Thought that Sacred Rites Were to Be Performed in Honor of Many Gods.
Caput XIII: Concerning the Opinion of Plato, According to Which He Defined the Gods as Beings Entirely Good and the Friends of Virtue.
Caput XIV: Of the Opinion of Those Who Have Said that Rational Souls are of Three Kinds, to Wit, Those of the Celestial Gods, Those of the Aerial Demons, and Those of Terrestrial Men.
Caput XV: That the Demons are Not Better Than Men Because of Their Aerial Bodies, or on Account of Their Superior Place of Abode.
Caput XVI: What Apuleius the Platonist Thought Concerning the Manners and Actions of Demons.
Caput XVII: Whether It is Proper that Men Should Worship Those Spirits from Whose Vices It is Necessary that They Be Freed.
Caput XVIII: What Kind of Religion that is Which Teaches that Men Ought to Employ the Advocacy of Demons in Order to Be Recommended to the Favor of the Good Gods.
Caput XIX: Of the Impiety of the Magic Art, Which is Dependent on the Assistance of Malign Spirits.
Caput XX: Whether We are to Believe that the Good Gods are More Willing to Have Intercourse with Demons Than with Men.
Caput XXI: Whether the Gods Use the Demons as Messengers and Interpreters, and Whether They are Deceived by Them Willingly, or Without Their Own Knowledge.
Caput XXII: That We Must, Notwithstanding the Opinion of Apuleius, Reject the Worship of Demons.
Caput XXIII: What Hermes Trismegistus Thought Concerning Idolatry, and from What Source He Knew that the Superstitions of Egypt Were to Be Abolished.
Caput XXIV: How Hermes Openly Confessed the Error of His Forefathers, the Coming Destruction of Which He Nevertheless Bewailed.
Caput XXV: Concerning Those Things Which May Be Common to the Holy Angels and to Men.
Caput XXVI: That All the Religion of the Pagans Has Reference to Dead Men.
Caput XXVII: Concerning the Nature of the Honor Which the Christians Pay to Their Martyrs.
Book 9
Caput I: The Point at Which the Discussion Has Arrived, and What Remains to Be Handled.
Caput II: Whether Among the Demons, Inferior to the Gods, There are Any Good Spirits Under Whose Guardianship the Human Soul Might Reach True Blessedness.
Caput III: What Apuleius Attributes to the Demons, to Whom, Though He Does Not Deny Them Reason, He Does Not Ascribe Virtue.
Caput IV: The Opinion of the Peripatetics and Stoics About Mental Emotions.
Caput V: That the Passions Which Assail the Souls of Christians Do Not Seduce Them to Vice, But Exercise Their Virtue.
Caput VI: Of the Passions Which, According to Apuleius, Agitate the Demons Who Are Supposed by Him to Mediate Between Gods and Men.
Caput VII: That the Platonists Maintain that the Poets Wrong the Gods by Representing Them as Distracted by Party Feeling, to Which the Demons and Not the Gods, are Subject.
Caput VIII: How Apuleius Defines the Gods Who Dwell in Heaven, the Demons Who Occupy the Air, and Men Who Inhabit Earth.
Caput IX: Whether the Intercession of the Demons Can Secure for Men the Friendship of the Celestial Gods.
Caput X: That, According to Plotinus, Men, Whose Body is Mortal, are Less Wretched Than Demons, Whose Body is Eternal.
Caput XI: Of the Opinion of the Platonists, that the Souls of Men Become Demons When Disembodied.
Caput XII: Of the Three Opposite Qualities by Which the Platonists Distinguish Between the Nature of Men and that of Demons.
Caput XIII: How the Demons Can Mediate Between Gods and Men If They Have Nothing in Common with Both, Being Neither Blessed Like the Gods, Nor Miserable Like Men.
Caput XIV: Whether Men, Though Mortal, Can Enjoy True Blessedness.
Caput XV: Of the Man Christ Jesus, the Mediator Between God and Men.
Caput XVI: Whether It is Reasonable in the Platonists to Determine that the Celestial Gods Decline Contact with Earthly Things and Intercourse with Men, Who Therefore Require the Intercession of the Demons.
Caput XVII: That to Obtain the Blessed Life, Which Consists in Partaking of the Supreme Good, Man Needs Such Mediation as is Furnished Not by a Demon, But by Christ Alone.
Caput XVIII: That the Deceitful Demons, While Promising to Conduct Men to God by Their Intercession, Mean to Turn Them from the Path of Truth.
Caput XIX: That Even Among Their Own Worshippers the Name ‘Demon’ Has Never a Good Signification.
Caput XX: Of the Kind of Knowledge Which Puffs Up the Demons.
Caput XXI: To What Extent the Lord Was Pleased to Make Himself Known to the Demons.
Caput XXII: The Difference Between the Knowledge of the Holy Angels and that of the Demons.
Caput XXIII: That the Name of Gods is Falsely Given to the Gods of the Gentiles, Though Scripture Applies It Both to the Holy Angels and Just Men.
Book 10
Caput I: That the Platonists Themselves Have Determined that God Alone Can Confer Happiness Either on Angels or Men, But that It Yet Remains a Question Whether Those Spirits Whom They Direct Us to Worship, that We May Obtain Happiness, Wish Sacrifice to Be Offered to Themselves, or to the One God Only.
Caput II: The Opinion of Plotinus the Platonist Regarding Enlightenment from Above.
Caput III: That the Platonists, Though Knowing Something of the Creator of the Universe, Have Misunderstood the True Worship of God, by Giving Divine Honor to Angels, Good or Bad.
Caput IV: That Sacrifice is Due to the True God Only.
Caput V: Of the Sacrifices Which God Does Not Require, But Wished to Be Observed for the Exhibition of Those Things Which He Does Require.
Caput VI: Of the True and Perfect Sacrifice.
Caput VII: Of the Love of the Holy Angels, Which Prompts Them to Desire that We Worship the One True God, and Not Themselves.
Caput VIII: Of the Miracles Which God Has Condescended to Adhibit Through the Ministry of Angels, to His Promises for the Confirmation of the Faith of the Godly.
Caput IX: Of the Illicit Arts Connected with Demonolatry, and of Which the Platonist Porphyry Adopts Some, and Discards Others.
Caput X: Concerning Theurgy, Which Promises a Delusive Purification of the Soul by the Invocation of Demons.
Caput XI: Of Porphyry’s Epistle to Anebo, in Which He Asks for Information About the Differences Among Demons.
Caput XII: Of the Miracles Wrought by the True God Through the Ministry of the Holy Angels.
Caput XIII: Of the Invisible God, Who Has Often Made Himself Visible, Not as He Really Is, But as the Beholders Could Bear the Sight.
Caput XIV: That the One God is to Be Worshipped Not Only for the Sake of Eternal Blessings, But Also in Connection with Temporal Prosperity, Because All Things are Regulated by His Providence.
Caput XV: Of the Ministry of the Holy Angels, by Which They Fulfill the Providence of God.
Caput XVI: Whether Those Angels Who Demand that We Pay Them Divine Honor, or Those Who Teach Us to Render Holy Service, Not to Themselves, But to God, are to Be Trusted About the Way to Life Eternal.
Caput XVII: Concerning the Ark of the Covenant, and the Miraculous Signs Whereby God Authenticated the Law and the Promise.
Caput XVIII: Against Those Who Deny that the Books of the Church are to Be Believed About the Miracles Whereby the People of God Were Educated.
Caput XIX: On the Reasonableness of Offering, as the True Religion Teaches, a Visible Sacrifice to the One True and Invisible God.
Caput XX: Of the Supreme and True Sacrifice Which Was Effected by the Mediator Between God and Men.
Caput XXI: Of the Power Delegated to Demons for the Trial and Glorification of the Saints, Who Conquer Not by Propitiating the Spirits of the Air, But by Abiding in God.
Caput XXII: Whence the Saints Derive Power Against Demons and True Purification of Heart.
Caput XXIII: Of the Principles Which, According to the Platonists, Regulate the Purification of the Soul.
Even Porphyry asserts that it was revealed by divine oracles that we are not purified by any sacrifices to sun or moon, meaning it to be inferred that we are not purified by sacrificing to any gods. For what mysteries can purify, if those of the sun and moon, which are esteemed the chief of the celestial gods, do not purify? He says, too, in the same place, that “principles” can purify, lest it should be supposed, from his saying that sacrificing to the sun and moon cannot purify, that sacrificing to some other of the host of gods might do so. And what he as a Platonist means by “principles,” we know. For he speaks of God the Father and God the Son, whom he calls (writing in Greek) the intellect or mind of the Father; but of the Holy Spirit he says either nothing, or nothing plainly, for I do not understand what other he speaks of as holding the middle place between these two. For if, like Plotinus in his discussion regarding the three principal substances, he wished us to understand by this third the soul of nature, he would certainly not have given it the middle place between these two, that is, between the Father and the Son. For Plotinus places the soul of nature after the intellect of the Father, while Porphyry, making it the mean, does not place it after, but between the others. No doubt he spoke according to his light, or as he thought expedient; but we assert that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit not of the Father only, nor of the Son only, but of both. For philosophers speak as they have a mind to, and in the most difficult matters do not scruple to offend religious ears; but we are bound to speak according to a certain rule, lest freedom of speech beget impiety of opinion about the matters themselves of which we speak.